ISLAMABAD   -   Pakistan Tehreek-e- Insaf (PTI) on Monday questioned the federal government’s plan to ban the party of Imran Khan, terming it a desperate attempt to shift public focus from the ‘myriad problems’ facing the country.

Speaking at a press conference along with senior party leaders, PTI Chairman Gohar Ali Khan said that the government’s talk of banning PTI was a diversionary tactic as the ruling coalition had plunged the country into a quagmire of problems.

Gohar said that the government wanted to ban PTI based on foreign funding case, but they were ignorant of the fact that only one such case was pending before the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), which was against Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz PML-N).

The PTI chairman stressed that the government’s plan to ban PTI strengthened the perception that PML-N was involved in the alleged crime with ECP in snatching the bat symbol from the party.

He stated that the Supreme Court, in its historic decision on reserved seats, categorically declared PTI as a political party, adding that the gov­ernment was doing all this to cover up its failure and embarrassment.

“We demand that Article 6 be ap­plied against those who commit un­constitutional acts while in power,” he demanded, adding that the gov­ernment would gain nothing even in the review on judgement in reserved seats case. He revealed that all their MNAs, except three, had submitted their affidavits to join PTI.

Secretary General PTI and Lead­er of the Opposition in the Nation­al Assembly Omar Ayub said that PML-N leadership hatched the con­spiracy during its three-day huddle in Murree and demanded that other parties, especially Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), clearly stated their stance over the issue of ban­ning the party.

He alleged that currently, only PML-N posed a national threat, as assets of all their leadership were stashed abroad.

Opposition Leader in the Senate Shibli Faraz alarmed that the gov­ernment’s actions would trigger a tsunami of inflation and economic instability, as the dollar was artifi­cially controlled, which would jump up to 350 against the rupee in the coming days.

Shibli said that PTI was the larg­est and most popular political force, and jailed party chief Imran Khan was the most popular leader of the country. “It is not child’s play to ban it,” he said, adding that PTI was the only political party with rep­resentation across the country. He said that Information Minister Atta Tarar’s presser was a political sur­render, adding that they would con­tinue their political struggle.

The opposition leader in the Sen­ate stated that the “mandate thieves” were using all brutal, unconstitution­al, and illegal tactics to oust PTI from the political arena but had misera­bly failed in their nefarious designs. PML-N had a track record of corrup­tion and anti-nationalism, he added.

Shibli went on to say that the gov­ernment was influencing election tribunals to get decisions of their choice, adding that people had giv­en a befitting reply on February 8 through their power of votes.